


Layers of Rust

by BLInk (BLI1404)



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Parties are For Losers - Ferry (Song Cycle), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: A trashcan is savagely beaten in chapter 1, Alternate Universe, Attempted Kidnapping, Canon-Typical Violence, Crossover, Family Dynamics, Kidnapping, Multi, Non-Graphic Violence, Underage Drinking, Violence, tags will be added as the story progresses
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-16 07:42:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29328726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BLI1404/pseuds/BLInk
Summary: A post-apocalyptic world where people walk into an anomalous zone with nothing, out with a few extra reproductive quirks and valuable items, and their children pay for their parents reckless mistakes.Oh, and parties!In which, Wilbur is a party animal, Niki is a hermit against her will, and I never directly tell my readers anything!Universe largely based off of "Parties are For Losers", with the same type of initiating events, but with a different cast who react to things very differently. Chronological events after Chapter 2 will be altered by the events of Chapter 2.
Relationships: Jschlatt & Niki | Nihachu, Niki | Nihachu & Wilbur Soot, Technoblade & Ranboo, Tommyinnit & Tubbo
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26





	1. False Disposition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Block people go brrr and Wilbur's a noisy music man, what else can I say? :D

" _This world is a cruel place for people like you. I'll keep you safe._ "

* * *

Niki had taken music in school for a year before she and her parents decided she would take private lessons. She loved it, but she wasn't necessarily as good at it as she wanted to be.

Enter Wilbur, in all of his irresponsible glory, with his guitar and his ridiculous singing. For some reason, her parents thought _he_ was the perfect candidate for a music tutor, and Niki had gotten along with him like a candle flame gets along with a curtain. Exposure to the reckless boy had left her more passionate about music than ever, so her parents were overjoyed with that development, as well as the fact that she had made a genuine friend outside of school.

And then her parents had died on her and her little brother, Tubbo. Her father's coworker and best friend, Jonathan Schlatt, had nominated himself to take care of them. Niki had never really known the man quite that well, but she found that he was a good cook, a good provider, and really overprotective of her and Tubbo, due to their mutations. It wasn't their fault that their parents had been idiots before the two of them were born! They were just lucky that they hadn't gotten any particularly nasty side effects.

Schlatt barely let the two of them out of the house after he took over raising them, and, if their social worker hadn't told him to try and keep everything as normal as possible, definitely would have stopped Niki's music lessons. Fortunately, they were allowed to continue, and Tubbo was allowed to see Wilbur's little brother, Tommy.

Thank goodness.

It became her favourite part of the sessions to ask, "How are you? How was your day?" and get to hear Wilbur's rambling responses.

Wilbur always had new or interesting stories about the outside world, especially some parties he mentioned going to frequently. Loud, fun and bright, the parties were the opposite of her boring life inside. So, of course, these stories always interested Niki the most, and she usually tried to get him to talk about them more when Schlatt wasn't listening, because she knew that, if he heard them being off topic, it was likely that he would cancel the lessons, normalcy be damned. And that would be hell, so they stayed on topic until they were sure Schlatt was out for a smoke or some other activity where he couldn't hear them talking.

So, at the beginning of the summer of her fifteenth year on this planet, Niki hatched a plan. A plan which consisted, simply, of asking Wilbur to bring her to a party late some night. So, she requested to have him come over to practice a piece that she had already been struggling with, and they practiced until Schlatt had gone out to do... something. Who knew what the hell he was doing? Not Niki, that's for sure.

So she got up her courage, stopped singing, put her guitar down, and cleared her throat. Which, by the way, was entirely redundant, because Wilbur's attention was already on her anyways.

"Wilbur, listen. It's going to sound weird, but..."

"What is it? Are you hitting on me?" Wilbur had interjected, as a joke, grinning at Niki like an idiot.

"What?! NO!" A pause, to calm her nerves, " It's just, those parties you love..."

"Yeah?" He had cut her off again. She was going to strangle this boy if he kept doing that.

In a quick burst, so he couldn't cut her off again, "I want you to take me to one!"

All she got out of Wilbur at that was a "Huh?!" before they could both hear Schlatt reenter the house, and she started strumming her guitar again and singing that song.

* * *

That night, after Schlatt and Tubbo had gone to bed, Niki had wiggled herself out of their bunk bed and gotten herself dressed in what she thought were her nicest t-shirt and shorts. When she finally got out to her deck, Wilbur was there, ready to catch her and lower her down. Of course, as soon as he was done doing that, it was necessary for him to tease her.

"So, did you just escape gym class, or...?"

Niki had been only mildly offended, but she played along, "Well I think I look cool!"

Wilbur had only laughed at that, then started walking towards the party. On the way, he explained what it would be like, how to act, who she should avoid. That she didn't have to stay with him the whole night. Things like that, important things.

She never would have known any of this if she had stayed at home.

Either way, they got to the party eventually, Niki wearing Wilbur's jacket because she had wildly overestimated the temperature of the early summer night. The bouncers gave her an odd look before Wilbur had explained that she was with him and they were allowed into the building.

Now, Niki had been able to hear the sound of the party from the outside and see some of the light that leaked out from under the door, but she had severely underestimated the sheer noise and brightness of the event. The music thrummed in her ears and there was a huge crowd of people that Wilbur was tugging her through to get to the refreshment table. She stepped in a puddle of spilt drink on the way, but she could care less. She was taking in the sheer variety that surrounded her: Everyone dressed differently from each other, everyone looked different, there were all sorts there. The lights were so bright and the music was loud and the drink that Wilbur had pushed into her hands and explained was the milder punch had a really terrible aftertaste. Is this what alcohol tastes like?

Right then and there, Niki decided that she loved parties.

* * *

Wilbur had left her near the wall of the party after someone had come up to him - Niki thinks she heard him say his name was "Tsar?" \- and she was still having fun, singing along to any music she recognized and sipping her second cup of punch. She was starting to feel fuzzy and light, like she was floating, and it was nice.

It stayed nice and relatively calm for a while, until a fight broke out near where Niki had decided to become a wallflower and she wandered off to find Wilbur. When she found him, he was with a group of other people, including that Tsar boy. Irrational rage spiked through her at the idea that Wilbur had abandoned her. So she tossed back the last of her cup of jungle juice, chucked the cup in the direction of a garbage bin, and headed outside for some fresh air. No use in freaking out at Wilbur and making him never want to bring her to a party again, right?

She could take out her frustration back here, as her surrogate father's words rang through her head, "_This world is a cruel place for people like you. I told you so._" And the idea that Schlatt was right was devastating. She couldn't give him that. Time for some damage control.

That poor garbage can never stood a chance as she kicked the shit out of it, clumsy in her movements due to alcohol and frustration clouding her mind. She didn't even hear as Wilbur walked out onto the porch behind her, and took a moment to survey the scene before he spoke.

"So dear, are you having fun?" When she whirled around to face him, almost stumbling over herself, he just laughed and continued on, "Ah, sorry for spiking your guns," this next pause had him hopping over the railing and onto the cracked pavement of the alleyway, baseball bat in hand, "Mind if I join you now?"

"Oh, it's okay, I'm calm-" She was cut off as he swung the baseball bat into a trashcan, a violently loud ringing cutting through the air and the fog in Niki's head at the same time.

"You know, I really hate this town."

And Niki decided, at that moment, that if this was how Wilbur, the caring boy who helped her with her music work, was outside of academics, during his free time? Then she would paint her face in blood and dirt as well, and let herself be a little wild.

Wilbur gave her his baseball bat after that. And she found it oddly freeing.

(However, one could assume that the garbage cans found it the opposite of freeing.)

That wasn't her last party, not by a long shot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am going to feed you as little information as I feel possible for this fic to work! However, if that gets too frustrating or you really want to check out the universe (and some really great songs) that I'm using, then feel free to go to the links below!
> 
> Link to PAFL playlist:  
> https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqbvxtscAe_iFQmi9jobNmpNffTBP5u53  
> Link to False Disposition (The song this chapter is heavily based off of):  
> https://youtu.be/NjBsRfmdYaM


	2. Parties are for Losers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Techno was entirely sure parties were well and truly terrible.  
> Actually going to one just made his opinion of them worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time to diverge from canon further than just subbing in different characters >:D

" _Eternal rest never seemed to be closer._ "

* * *

Techno had decided, about an hour ago, that parties were stupid. Especially this one. This stupid one that Wilbur had spent weeks, _weeks,_ trying to convince him to attend, only to ditch him for Niki and his weird group of friends as soon as they got there.

 _Wilbur is a liar,_ Techno thought, recalling how he had been told that this party would be "_fun and relaxing_" and that getting out for a bit would help him to "_unwind and destress._" How he had been so easily convinced that he could afford to take a break from school for a few hours to hang out with his brother, when in reality the plan seemed to have been "_Let's drag Techno to a party and ditch him by the spiked punch!_"

**LIAR BROTHER**

So, of course, after such positive descriptions of the events, Techno hadn't expect the abject chaos that was these parties. The noise, the lights. It was all too much. But he needed to stay at least a few hours, because he had promised Wilbur that he would give it a fair shake and let the environment grow on him.

**That was a bad idea.**

**Leave. LEAVE. LEAVE.**

**Run.**

**E E E E E E E E**

**BLOOD.**

He steadfastly ignored the Chat and their current micro-obsession with finding the nearest exit. The panic was normal in high stress situations, and if he had known it would be so loud at this party he would have tried harder not to attend. But, alas, that was no longer an option. 

So he ignored the damn mutation that always freaked out for reasons that he, personally, thought were nothing.

* * *

Well, he ignored it until he heard the commotion from across the room. He pushed through the crowd to see what was going on and, when he reached the edge of the circle that was forming around the scene, he froze.

There was a boy there, no older than thirteen, who had spilled his glass of orange juice all over a man who Techno recognized as a local hotshot Stalker. The boy was on the ground, covering his face with his hands and holding slightly bent sunglasses. The man had obviously punched him when he spilt his drink. 

The voices _screamed_ when they saw that boy.

**One of us! One of us! Protect him!**

**PROTECT THE CHILD!**

**Ranboo! Guys, his name is Ranboo!**

The sinking feeling in his gut as he got close to the boy confirmed it. That familiar sinking feeling that happened whenever he was around Dream for too long, or around anything Phil brought home from an expedition. 

It only acted up around anomalous objects. 

The boy, Ranboo, must be an anomalous object.

And he thought his night couldn't get much worse. Guess he was wrong.

**WRONG.**

**WRONG. INCORRECT.**

The next few minutes were a blur, a whirl of violence. Techno found himself between the boy and the drug lord, who was now on the floor, bleeding from his nose and his mouth. Techno vaguely remembered punching the man in the face.

He could see Niki out of the corner of his eye, taking her bat to some poor bastard's teeth. Wilbur, away on the other side of the room with some girl he had only met that night, oblivious. 

Everything around Techno and Ranboo dissolved into fighting, and Techno chose to kick the drug dealer once more for good measure, making sure he would stay down before he turned around to face the one on the floor. 

He offered him a hand and helped the lanky child off the floor. 

* * *

Even though Techno knew that Ranboo had to be a mutant, he had no idea what, exactly, his mutation was. And the boy wouldn't tell him.

That didn't matter, honestly. Techno didn't tell the boy about the Chat, so he didn't need to know about whatever was up with the younger. The only thing that the boy would actually tell him was that he had run away from home, and, as little as Techno wanted to admit it, he had zoned out of the rest of that conversation. 

Techno decided to go to more parties after this. Just to check on the boy. 

**Technosoft!**

**New brother! Protect him!**

He elected to ignore the Chat. Again.

* * *

He saw Ranboo again a few times, mostly with Wilbur and Niki around. They had tried to figure out if there was anywhere he could stay, between the three of them, but Techno already shared a room with two brothers, and Niki had her hands full trying to deal with Schlatt and Tubbo living in the same tiny space as her. 

So himself, Wilbur and Niki found a place that Ranboo could stay, constructing a sort of hideaway in a seldom-used alleyway. 

He found ways to sneak money into the boy's pockets, so that he could live a little easier. 

**Technohelp**

**E E E**

Two weeks passed by like that, in relative peace, with the boy showing no external symptoms of his mutation other than being cagey about it whenever Techno would ask. So they talked about other things like music, and art, and what Techno was doing at school. 

Actually, he had begun to teach the boy some of the stuff he was learning at school, since there was no other place for him to learn from right now.

Damn it, Techno was starting to think of the boy as another brother. He didn't need three brothers, but that's what he got. 

* * *

At the end of the summer, when it was raining as though the heavens had opened to dispose of all of their storm water, Techno found himself back in the bar with the three younger kids he had become determined to keep an eye on. 

Something was different about today, though. Wrong. The music was **too loud** , the air **too hot** , and everything was **too much**. The lights were **too bright** , and he found himself stumbling to get away from all of it. 

**LEAVE. RUN.**

**RUN. RUN. RUN.**

**LEAVE. ESCAPE.**

**TOO MUCH. TOO LOUD.**

**TOO BRIGHT.**

The only thing he could choke out to his companions before they led him somewhere through the blur was along the lines of,

"I think this music will surely drive me mad."

Which was the understatement of the century.

Later, when he was calmer, he found himself in the washroom of the place, muffled music seeping through the walls like an inescapable wave of pain. His head ached, and the Chat was screaming again, as they always did near Ranboo, but this time it was different. The panicked screams from before were still prevalent, and the boy seemed extremely concerned for him. 

"Are you alright, Tech? Do you need to... Talk about anything?" Techno could barely hear him through the noise in his head. 

"The music, it's going to drive me insane."

"Yeah, I get that. Do you think you're good to get up?" There's Wilbur, trying to get him to his feet. 

Techno leans on the wall as he stands from his messy sprawl on the floor, dusts himself off, and lies to his brother, "Yeah. I'm good to walk."

So they walk outside, Niki in tow, and they decide to walk her home so she'll make her curfew. 

* * *

_Niki's home is tiny,_ Techno thought to himself as they walked inside. As soon as he walked inside, he could tell that the home consisted of only a few rooms, but it was larger than his own, which was a blessing, he guessed. Although, he knew that Niki and Tubbo still had to share a bunkbed in the living room from all of Tommy's rambling. 

Now, Techno had met Schlatt before. They only knew one another because both of Techno's siblings hung out here pretty regularly, but there was no beef between them. 

The Chat, however, seemed to know something Techno did not, as usual, because as soon as he saw that Schlatt had laid eyes on Ranboo they were screaming at him.

**PROTECT THE CHILD**

**DON'T LET HIM HURT RANBROTHER**

**KEEP HIM SAFE**

And so, when Techno made eye contact with Schlatt and then saw Schlatt take out his phone and message someone, he knew. He knew that they were all in danger that message sent, and he could do nothing. 

Because, if Techno did something here?

Then Niki would never get to see Wilbur again.

Tommy would be separated from Tubbo.

Ranboo would be captured and sent off for analsysis. 

So Techno did nothing. He bided his time until he left with Ranboo and Wilbur, then told Wilbur to go ahead of them into the party, that they would meet him inside. As soon as they were alone, he warned Ranboo.

"Schlatt alerted the authorities, while we were there."

"He... Why would he do that? Tech, why would he tell them about... About me?"

"Because he probably thinks you're dangerous. Are you dangerous, kid?"

A few beats too long of silence, "Not to you."

"But that means you are a danger to others, right?"

Another silence, except the meaning of this one was louder than the word _yes_ has any right to be. 

"So, here's the plan. You can't stay at your shelter anymore, you need to get somewhere else. Can you..."

They spent the next half an hour planning what needed to happen before they met back up with Wilbur. Tensions were high for the rest of the night, but with a plan in place, at least two of them could relax a bit and have fun. 

* * *

The next night, when they were dropping Niki back off at her house after yet another party, felt like a funeral. Neither Niki or Wilbur knew there was a plan in place, but when Schlatt sent a text, Techno was waiting. 

Five minutes later, the door was broken down. 

**STICK TO THE PLAN**

Five seconds after that, uniformed officers poured in. 

Techno dragged Wilbur into a corner of the room, to be safe. Schlatt had Niki by the arm, holding her off to the side, and stood in front of the door to where Tubbo had to be. 

**PROTECT WILBUR**

Techno saw Ranboo rip his coat and gloves off, saw the purple lights flying erratically around the room as the boy's eyes shone a blinding light behind his sunglasses.

Then the boy was being bundled out of the room by officers, screaming and struggling, the unnatural purple and black splotches across his skin glowing fiercely. 

Sixteen seconds later, Wilbur broke away from Techno to sprint outside, and Techno chased after him. They spent a while staring at the van driving away with their friend alongside Schlatt. 

Techno heard Niki come out behind them, witnessing the disappearance of one of her friends. 

The moment that Schlatt turned his back, there was a blinding light from the van. 

**Ranbrother?**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter follows the song Parties Are For Losers! Technically the first in the song cycle, chronologically something like the 3rd!  
> Here is the link to the song:  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txRCM_YHmH8
> 
> Also! From here on this fic won't be super linear and the group of characters that I cover will change from chapter to chapter. While Wilbur is kind of the main character (A lot of stuff will happen around him/to him/because of him) a lot of others should get their turns as well!  
> If you have any questions about the order that the chapters go in chronologically, I'll do my best to answer comments!


End file.
